A Vampire's Tale: Vincent's Story
by Yunalesca Strife
Summary: *FINALLY Chapter 4* The sequel to the Cloud/Aeris fic. Vincent decides to tell his part of the story and what happened to his life.
1. Chapter 1

Ok, it took a while but I actually started to feel like writing again.  Anyway, you will not understand this fic if you haven't read A Vampire's Tale so it's best if you read that one first.  This one is in Vincent's POV (which is kinda obvious).  And anything Final Fantasy related belongs to Squaresoft.

~*~

Vincent's Story

She's gone.  I know she is.  I always had the feeling that she was alive somewhere but that feeling is gone now.  I would have tried to stop her if I knew what she was going to do.  I've spent all those years searching for her only to see her one more time for a mere five minutes?  But I feel more alone now than ever.  

People may think that being a vampire is great, that we can do anything we want and walk unnoticed among the crowds of people along the street at night.  We may be able to, but there's nothing great about it.  Just having no one to understand you can be horrible enough to make you go crazy.  There are very few of us on this planet and none ever want to see each other.  To me, being around the others makes me feel even more hopeless than I do right now.  It just shows how fragile life really is.  To be with others who have cheated death itself.  And to think that Aeris also went through this pain only makes me feel worse.  But I guess she lived through each day thinking that somehow Cloud was with her, guarding her like an angel.  I myself am not quite so optimistic.

            When Sephiroth made me into this all those years ago, I lost myself.  I changed completely.  Instead of feeling happy and knowing that people care I turned into a monster. All my feelings had disappeared and I know that I shall remain that way.  But when I saw Aeris that one last time, I remembered how I was.  I remembered all the feelings I had so long ago.  Aeris was my last hope of becoming what I once was, and now she is gone.  She never knew how important she was to me.  Ever since Cloud crashed into her life she had been blinded by her love for him to notice, or even to remember me.  Sure, she probably thought of me once in a while but it wasn't even close to how much I thought of her.  I never had the strength to tell her how I felt about her and even if she were here right now, I still would not say it.  Even with all this power, my emotions are still weak.

            When she told that man her story, she knew that those moments would be her last upon this planet.  That is why she told him in the first place.  To have her story remembered though time and little did she know, that man was a writer looking for an idea.  Aeris always seemed to be good at helping people out in their lives…

            And now, thanks to her, that man is the richest author in the world.  Even with just one book.  Everyone always asks him how he got such an imagination and he never tells.  I guess if he actually told the truth everyone would think he's crazy and his immense popularity would soon be gone.  I have actually read the book many times and he remembered the events almost perfectly from her words.  But he could never write the true emotions of the people involved.  And well, he made me seem too obsessed with Sephiroth's daughter Tifa and not helpful enough to Aeris.  I guess it is my job to be at least a little critical about his work since I am the only other person alive that knows her true story.  And of course, I do not agree with him making her story into a book that rests in the fiction section of bookstores around the world.

            Tifa also made a small appearance in the book.  I did have a bit of a crush on Tifa but I would never let it get far.  We both knew it wouldn't work and we just stayed as friends.  I know it sounds like her relationship with Cloud but no one really knew about us.  But I can't help wondering what happened to her that night.  I am almost certain that Sephiroth didn't kill her.  He cared about her too much.  He even chose to keep her alive longer than his own wife.  I have always hated Sephiroth and my hatred grew past what I had expected when he made me into a vampire.  I would have killed him myself eventually if Aeris hadn't done it first.  But she did it because she was stronger than me.  She also had Cloud to help her understand her powers.  I had no one.  I was alone to find out what strange abilities I had.  And I also learned about vampires and sunlight the hard way.  I never knew that creatures like this existed.

            And when I found Aeris's necklace, I thought she was killed by Sephiroth's sword.  Who would have thought that anger and sadness could be such a dangerous combination?  Although I wasn't sure at first that she had died, I almost felt Cloud die.  It was like he was a part of me because I felt his pain deep inside me.  It was then that my feeling that Aeris was still alive began.  Sephiroth's death by that fatal castle fire only confirmed it for me.  But since then, my life has been hell.

            And now I sit and look at Aeris's pendant, hoping that my memories of her will resurface.  I don't really have to hope since I can remember her voice as clear as the cloudless night.  Another ability that comes with being a vampire is the incredible memory.  I can remember everything.  And most of the time I wish I couldn't because it only tortures me more.  I hate to think that my life, like Aeris's, was perfect back then.  It's funny to think that fate can screw with people's lives when they are at their best.  But I guess fate does it to teach you something.  And the reason I am still here is because I haven't found out what I was supposed to learn yet.  Am I living on borrowed time merely to learn something that might not even matter in the end?  How am I supposed to even learn something through all this pain?  Physical pain may hurt but it doesn't compare to emotional pain, which can last for an eternity or more.

            And yes, I have learned about the promised land.  An eternal heaven for those who have done well in their lives.  I do believe that Aeris found her promised land.  She deserves every bit of it.  Even when most are doubtful that vampires can see their promised land, aren't our souls human?  Yes, we still do have souls, but they are supposedly given to the devil when we are made into vampires.  But if the devil owns our souls, why would he want us to keep living?  Just to feel the pain that comes from being eternally lonely?  Maybe…

            I could tell my story to some poor struggling writer too.  But why should I?  Especially since I can tell it to the whole world myself.  If Aeris's story could be one of the many bestsellers, so could mine.  Except I have the experience of actually being in the story.  But just so I do not bore you, the readers of this tale, I will sum it up in a few chapters.  I will reveal most of my story to you but there are things that I must keep to myself.  Some things that, when I do leave this planet, will go with me.

And so it begins…


	2. Chapter 2

            It started the evening of a cold storm.  I was supposed to visit Aeris like I usually did but strangely, me and a few others were asked by Sephiroth to stay and work late.  He seemed frustrated when he talked to us.  But I did not argue because even I was a little afraid of him.  He could probably take down an entire army with just his cold gaze.  There was just something about him that made no one want to challenge his opinions.  Anyone knew that if they did, they would surely lose.

            I was straightening some things out in the main hall when Yuffie silently came up to me.  She was one of the younger servants who were asked to stay later than usual.  She seemed scared and she kept her voice down to a whisper.

            "I found something in Sephiroth's room", she said looking around nervously.  I became curious.

            "What are you talking about?  You know no one is supposed to go in there", I said.

            "I know!  But I wanted to see what he was hiding.  You know I can't keep my curiosity to myself!" She replied trying to keep her voice down.

            "Okay, I get the idea.  What did you find?" I asked finally.

            I thought it was just one of her jokes that she usually makes at the worst times.  But when I saw the papers that she gave me, I became confused.  It was surely in Sephiroth's handwriting.  But why would he be writing things about nocturnal creatures called vampires?  And what was this thing called the Daylight Moon jewel?  I was more confused than ever.

            "What is all of this?" I asked looking at her.

            "Just keep reading!" she said still looking around for anyone that could be listening in on us.  I quickly flipped through the ten pages of tiny writing, looking at any words that seemed to be important.  I gave them back to her then.

            "I can't read all this now.  I'm busy", I said.  She sighed.

            "Don't you get it?!"  Her voice raised in volume a little.  "He's a vampire!"

            She quickly covered her mouth as the words echoed through the hall.  We started to hear faint footsteps leading into the hall and she gasped.  She grabbed my hand and pulled me into a room that was close by.  The footsteps went into the hall and stopped for a moment.  There was a loud crash of thunder and she jumped.  The footsteps started again and they faded away.

            "Why did you come to me about this?  Why not any of the others like Cid or Barret?" I asked.  She narrowed her eyes at me.

            "Do you honestly think they would listen to me?"  She had a point.  Both Cid and Barret had complained to me about her slight immaturity more than once.  Yuffie and I were the youngest working here but people always said that I was extremely mature for my age.  She also just became a servant a few months ago.  I nodded at her response and thought.

            "What do you mean he's a vampire?  I thought they didn't exist."

            "I don't know how they exist!  All I know is that he is one!  Everything just fits", she said.

            She explained the evidence of it to me and it soon started to make sense.  But still, what business is it of ours?  If he wanted it to be a secret, why can't it remain a secret?

            "What do we have to do with any of this?" I asked.  She stayed silent for a moment and shrugged.  I sighed and left the small room.  "Don't worry about this.  Just get back to work so we can leave soon, okay?"

            A disappointed look appeared on her face and she nodded.  I looked at the papers in her hand.

            "And put those back.  Who knows what he would do if he knew you took them", I said.  She nodded again and left quickly, dropping one of the papers in the process.  I noticed and picked it up.  I glanced slightly at it and the word "Jenova" stuck in my mind for some odd reason.

            "Yuffie!  Wait, you dropped this", I yelled before she left.  She turned around and took the paper.  I noticed she just stood there looking at the ground.  At this rate, none of us will be out of there before sunrise I thought.  Why couldn't she just get back to work?

            "Shouldn't you be going?" I asked.  She looked up at me with tears in her eyes.

            "I'm really scared", she whispered.  "Why can't you just understand how serious this can turn out to be?"

            Although I could've laughed at the thought of Yuffie caring about something serious, I felt a little worried.  She is usually running around the place with her endless energy and working hard to get money to buy more materia.  Even her pouting when she didn't get her way didn't look as hopeless as she did now.  A flash of lightning appeared outside the window.

            "Yuffie look, it'll be okay.  I'll talk to you more about this tomorrow.  But right now, I just want to get out of here."  She nodded again.

            "Thanks Vincent."  She smiled at me a little and left.

            I was alone in the biggest room in the castle once again.  I watched the flickering candles on the walls for a while and thought.  Tifa told me about what she and Cloud wanted to do.  They were going to tell Sephiroth that he couldn't make them get married.  Sephiroth was gone at the moment but he would be back soon.  He never told anyone about where he goes.  Strange guest, I thought.  But so what if he's a vampire?  He'll be gone soon.  He was only staying here to visit the King and Queen of Nibelheim.  I shrugged the thought off and remembered some of the vampire stories the children told back in the streets of Nibelheim long ago.  I laughed a little to myself.

            "He's not a vampire", I whispered.  "Vampires have powers.  Sephiroth is just freaky looking."  I laughed again and went back to cleaning up.  I smiled as I thought more.

            "I hope Aeris doesn't beat the hell out of me for being so late.  She would never forgive me if I made her worried.  Oh well."  I finished cleaning and sat down for a while.  I heard a faint noise coming from somewhere in the castle.  And then a scream.  I froze and continued to listen.  The scream sounded a lot like Tifa's voice.  I got up and ran in the direction of the sound.

            I entered a hallway and I saw Tifa running towards me.  She tripped right in front of me and I caught her.  She was crying and there was blood on the front of her dress.

            "He has Cloud!" she cried.  I looked up and Sephiroth was standing at the other end of the hallway.  She noticed and stood up straight again.  He smiled and as if he said something only she could hear, she started crying again and ran out of the hallway.  He looked at me in my confused state.

            "So you are the one she has feelings for", he said to me.  I just stood there, not believing anything that just happened.  He started walking towards me and talked again.  "And do you have feelings for her too?"  I stayed silent.

            He stopped right in front of me and his eyes flashed.  My head began to hurt and I fell down.  The pain got worse and I held my head in my hands.

            "I'll never let my daughter fall in love with a mere servant!" he yelled.  Just as he yelled, I heard a small cry coming from behind Sephiroth.  I looked up and I saw Yuffie with a dagger in her hand.

            "What are you doing to Vincent?!" she screamed.  He released his power on me and turned to her.  She ran at him and stabbed him with the dagger and jumped back to lean against the wall.  He laughed.

            "You think you can kill me with a normal weapon?" he asked calmly.  She gasped.

            "It is true!  I know all your little secrets Sephiroth! You'll never find the Daylight Moon!"  My confusion continued as she talked.  But I recognized some words from Sephiroth's papers.  I tried to tell Yuffie to shut up and run, but I was too weak to do anything.

            Sephiroth suddenly ripped the dagger out of his chest and stabbed Yuffie.  She fell down next to me and she started coughing up blood.  The wound from the small blade made her lose even more blood and I knew she could never survive this.  Sephiroth stood over us laughing to himself again.  Yuffie's dying coughs echoed through the hallway and I felt myself getting weaker.  I looked over at her and I saw her close her eyes for the last time just as I blacked out.

~*~

Hmm…a little violent this time.  Oh well.  Let's see how the next chapter will turn out.


	3. Chapter 3

I remember the pain in my head being almost unbearable.  At that moment I had no clue how Sephiroth could bestow such a pain upon me without a single movement.  But now it is so simple for me to unleash the same power from my own mind and even make it a thousand times more intense.  Only now I see that Sephiroth never reached his full potential as a vampire because he never was that powerful.  Not being used to pain can play tricks on your mind and does not allow you to understand what real pain feels like.  The hurt that he gave me that day was nothing.

            I woke up the next day from my dreamless sleep to a day full of lightning and rain.  It was just like that the day before.  But as I opened my eyes, confusion clouded my senses once again.  I was in my own bed at home in the quiet village of Nibelheim.  I had a slight headache that may have come from a cold I thought I had gotten over earlier that week.  But I couldn't remember how I got home that night.  What happened seemed too real to be merely a dream.  I tried to remember absolutely anything that could help me determine if all of it was real or not but nothing came to me.

            I got out of bed and realized I was still dressed in the clothes I had on the night before.  I didn't have time to think of it because I knew I was late.  I had to be at the castle already.  I quickly left my house and started running in the direction of the castle grounds.  My mind was still trying to understand what happened when I got a strange idea.  Maybe I went out drinking with the guys last night.  It would certainly explain my loss of memory and my headache.  I convinced myself that I had a point as I got to the castle and I noticed the drawbridge was gone.  I went inside using the small piece of metal that lied across the moat.  Cid and Barret were at their usual positions yet they seemed horribly disturbed.

            "Where the hell were you!?" Cid demanded, "You're late this morning and you just disappeared on us last night!"

            "Wait a second", I said.  "I disappeared?"

            "Yeah.  Both you and Yuffie", Barret replied with a smile.  "I thought you said she wasn't your type."

            My confusion turned to annoyance and I punched Barret.  "I'm not in the mood to joke around today, alright?"

            "Well neither are we!" Cid yelled.  "Something pretty big happened last night and you two just leaving didn't help much."

            I turned to look at him.  "What happened?"

            "It started when we heard screaming.  Sephiroth came to us with blood all over him and he told us to leave quickly.  We came back this morning and we had to find a replacement for the drawbridge."

            "Anything else?" I asked.

            "Look around!  This place is trashed!  It looks like there was a war in the damn castle last night with all the blood around here!"

            I guess I looked unusually calm then.  But this familiar confusion was so intense, it almost hurt.  "Did you even search the castle or did you just stand around here doing nothing?"

            This time it was Barret's turn to punch me.  "You think we're going to go through all of this by ourselves?  Whatever did all this could still be here and we have no weapons on us right now."

            Cid looked at him.  "Barret, shut up and quit acting like a monster did this.  There is a reasonable explanation for everything."  He then turned to look at me.  "So where did you go last night?  See Aeris again?"

            I was suddenly filled with mixed emotions of guilt and fear.  "Shit!  I forgot all about her!"

            Both Cid and Barret looked at me surprised.  They had never heard me curse out loud before.  I looked at both of them.  "Get used to it", I said as I turned to run out of the castle.  I ran towards the barn where she usually stayed.  I went inside calling her name and I realized she wasn't there.  My mixed feelings turned into worry and my confusion was at an all time high.  

            "Damn it!  What the hell happened!?" I yelled as I turned to run back.  The sky was dark but the rain had stopped.  Again I didn't have time to notice since my mind was busy trying to find some sense in all of this.  I went back inside the castle and found Cid and Barret right where they were standing earlier.

            "Well, are you guys going to actually do something or what?" I said out of breath.  There was no one else around for miles it seemed and I doubted my sanity already.  I also needed to find Aeris.

            "What can we do!?  This place is dead!" Cid yelled.

            "Go to town and get help.  And find out if someone knows about what happened." I said.  Apparently I was the only one even trying to think. "And look for Yuffie while you're at it."

            Barret sighed and left.  Cid looked at me.  "And what are you going to do?"

            "Look for any clues about what happened here.  Since you guys are too scared."

            "We're not scared!  Only unsure of our surroundings." Cid replied following Barret.

            I crossed my arms.  "Sure you are", I said lowering my voice.

            I turned to look into the castle.  The lack of sunlight made it look like night so I found a torch and lit it on fire.  I looked around carefully as I walked further into the castle and noticed how messed up the place really was.  Not one piece of furniture was left untouched and blood covered the walls.  It looked like no one in the castle had left with their life that night.  And I still wondered how I got out.  I thought of the events that I had seen and how it somehow fit like a puzzle piece into how this all came to be.

            I soon came upon the door that led to the dungeon cells.  I tried opening it but it was unusually locked.  I told myself to forget it and to keep looking.  I got an idea and I headed to Sephiroth's room.  Since all this somehow involved him I guessed, there should be some kind of information where he kept most of his secrets.  But as I kept walking I became more scared about what could've happened to Aeris.  She was always at the barn and if she wasn't she would leave some kind of note for me.  We talked about all this already so that we would make sure nothing happened to any of us.  I sighed and put those thoughts aside for now.  I thought that if I wanted to get something done, I must only concentrate on one thing at a time and to keep calm.  Everyone always said I could keep calm at the worst of times.  But they have never seen past my appearance.

            I soon came to Sephiroth's room.  The door wasn't locked and I easily opened it.  I quickly scanned the room and it was also trashed just like the rest of the castle.  I walked in and saw paper scattered all over the floor.  I thought of the papers Yuffie gave to me to read and I began to pick up each paper and tried to put all the numbered ones in order.  Some I couldn't even read because of all the blood that covered a few of them.  But soon I had all that I could read easily and I sat down at the desk in the corner of the room.  I started to read and the time flew by.  It soon became evening but I didn't even notice because of all the information that I took in.  I wasn't even done reading when I heard a noise from somewhere in the castle.  I looked up and realized how much time went by.  Maybe that noise was from Cid and Barret even though they should have been back sooner.  I stood up and stretched, feeling like I had just read a fictional novel.  The noise sounded again and I became distracted from the rest of the papers.  I stood up and walked to the door.  Lightning from the dying storm lit the hallway and I started to walk to where I had heard the sound.  I entered a room and saw a dark figure.  Not being able to be surprised anymore, I took a guess and said his name.  Lightning filled the room again as if fate itself was messing with my head and it showed me that I was right.  The light reflected off his incredibly long sword.  He just looked at me.

            "I gave you a chance to live, servant.  Why did you come back?"

            Strangely, I felt as if I accomplished something.  I let all the things that had confused me earlier come back to me and so many questions filled my head.  I asked the one that came to me first.


	4. Chapter 4

            "Where is Aeris?" I asked.  Somehow deep inside of me I felt as though Sephiroth was responsible for her disappearance.  He narrowed his eyes at me.

            "Who is this Aeris that you speak of?  And more importantly, why would I care?"  He leaned back against the wall casually and kept looking at me.  His eyes were so deep and they seemed to glow.  Now I did believe it.  The papers had told the truth about him.  But if that was true, was it also true about the…

            "Enough about your foolish questions.  I have to time for you", he said interrupting my thoughts.  "I'll give you one more chance.  Leave with your life or stay and suffer."

            I must not have understood what powers he truly had or what he could do to me through a simple thought but I just stood there.  Even then I was waiting for the events of the past days to sink in so I could finally feel reality's cold awakening.  But until that really happened I had to deal with the current situation.  I asked again.

            "Where is she?  I know you did something to her.  I will not wait until you write about her in your mindless ramblings in your papers!"

            His eyes widened and the look he had made my courage falter a little more.  Apparently I hit one of his bad nerves.  But if I were him, I wouldn't be so surprised.  I wouldn't leave my written thoughts scattered around for all to see.  He scanned my mind to see how much I really learned.

            "Well…you have just chosen your fate young servant.  Since you have read how it's like to be a vampire, you may now know how it is to live like one."

            As he finished, he sped towards me faster than I've ever seen anything move and pushed his sword though my neck.  My legs collapsed below me but he held me up with the blade.  The pain worsened with each second he held me and I listened to my own blood pour onto the brick floor below my feet.  I couldn't cry out from the pain because of the wound and I was forced to take all his punishment.  After I lost most of my blood he ripped the sword out of me and I fell, hitting my head against the hard floor in the process.  I blacked out instantly in a pool of my own deep crimson blood.

            I woke up about an hour later to the echoing sounds of Sephiroth's laughter inside my head.  I opened my eyes and thought if what I had experienced was real.  I should be dead.  But I felt no pain.  I stood up and looked around.  Surprisingly my eyes focused well in the darkness of the room.  I had blood on my clothes but the pool on the floor was gone.  I felt for the wound in my neck but that too was gone.  I began to doubt my own sanity and I quickly searched for a mirror.  I found a broken shard of one and I gazed into it.  A being with cold eyes and pale skin looked back at me.  It didn't surprise me at all.  I sighed and kept looking at all the features of my face.  I soon noticed the tiny drops of blood on my lips and I thought back to Sephiroth's papers.  About how a vampire is made.  I would have to drink Sephiroth's blood in the process.

            I shuttered with the thought of it.  I looked at the small mirror in my hands and decided to test what I could do.  I crushed it in my hands and let the tiny, diamond-like pieces fall to the floor.  Too easy.  I didn't even draw blood from the cuts on my hands.  I guess I felt a little insanity creep up on me around then.  I felt like nothing mattered anymore and I had nothing else to lose.  I had no limits.  I could do everything Sephiroth could do.  And maybe now I'll be able to find out what the hell actually happened around here easier.

            I walked to the doorway and thought to myself.  I'll deal with Sephiroth soon but for now I must find out what powers and weaknesses I truly have now.

~*~

Ok, this is a short chapter.  I know it took long enough but I'm pretty busy with a lot of stuff.  I also have to work now so yeah…  Anyway, tell me what you think of my horrible story.  I hope I get better someday…


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